“What quicker way to make ordinary people into heroes and villains than to turn the weather against them and destroy everything they know?” On the rise and utility of fiction about climate change. | Smithsonian Magazine

She wants the freedom to move on, to make things hard on herself: A profile of Mallory Ortberg, one year after the shuttering of The Toast. | Motherboard

The Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, founded to “honor the legacy of one of the most original and accomplished poets to emerge in recent years—and to reward outstanding poets for years to come,” will award $10,000 and publication to a debut collection of poems. | Milkweed Editions

The lineup for this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival (including Karl Ove Knausgaard, Joyce Carol Oates, Robin Coste Lewis, and more) has been announced; Colson Whitehead will receive the annual Best of Brooklyn Award, and Adrian Tomine and Rodrigo Corral will design the poster. | Brooklyn Book Festival